It's Not What it Looks Like
by Darkfire Galaxy
Summary: It's Rhydian's birthday and he's invited Maddy to Mrs Vaughan's house to spend the day with him. He thinks she'll be a silver lining to a boring and otherwise predictable day, but will Mrs Vaughan have a surprise or two up her sleeve? Will Maddy's nightmare be a justified warning, or is she just over reacting?


Wolfblood

It's Not What it Looks Like

Maddy was excited more than usual that day. It wasn't anything like the usual causes for excitement she found. She hadn't bought a new camera, camera lens or roll of film for the really old and battered instant camera she had lying on the shelf in her room. It wasn't even to do with the fact that Wednesday was hog roast night. This was something that went far beyond any of that. Silently, she crept up the stairs towards her bedroom and got ready, knowing he'd be in there. The box behind her back was kept firmly clutched in her hand. After a few deep breaths, she burst through and held out the present.

"Happy birthday, Rhydian!" She called out before letting out a scream. Rhydian was laid out on her bed with a short brunette girl straddling his waist.

"Maddy, I swear it's not what it looks like…" Maddy tore open the box and stormed forward. She quickly ripped one of the razor-sharp watercolour pencils she'd bought Rhydian for his birthday out of the packet and held it to the girl's throat. The led would be too soft to kill her which was good because she didn't want a dead body on her hands. She still knew it would do enough damage for her to get even with this unknown girl for sticking her hands up Rhydian's shirt. As for Rhydian's fate, there were still eleven other pencils in the pack and she'd go through them one at a time until he gave her a damn good explanation! With angry tears pricking her eyes, she grabbed the girl by her shoulder and spun her around. A strangled gasp left her as she stared into a mirror image of her own face.

"What are you waiting for?" the Maddy that was straddling Rhydian asked. "You know what you want and you know what he wants. Get on with it!" Startled, Maddy dropped the pencil she'd been holding. There was a dull thud as it hit the floor followed by the sound of shattering glass.

Maddy jolted awake, her wolf flaring into life in the inky darkness of her room. Emma ran in and hit the light switch, causing Maddy to scream and bury her face in her hands as the sudden change in the light level was amplified by her wolf and left her temporarily blinded.

"It was just a nightmare." Shakily, she took her hands away from her eyes and grabbed a tissue for the tears streaming down her face.

"Sorry about that, cub. I keep forgetting your wolf activates when you have nightmares." Emma reached over and hugged her daughter. "So, what's on your mind?"

"What does it matter?" Maddy shrugged as the fuzziness cleared slowly from her vision.

"Well, you only have nightmares when you have something on your mind." Emma reasoned. The words were out of her mouth before she could even think.

"Do girls think about boys more than boys think about girls?"

"Well don't bother thinking up _hard_ questions at three in the morning." Emma rolled her eyes. "Are we talking about Rhydian here?"

"It's his birthday tomorrow and I'm going over to his house to give him his present and stuff." Maddy shrugged. "I feel like for as long as we're apart, there's a piece of me missing or just out of reach. I just wonder if he feels the same way too."

"Have you ever thought it might be worse for him?" Emma grinned. "He'd never even had the opportunity to meet someone like you before he came here, let alone get to be friends with them. Now he suddenly has a girlfriend and he's been in the same place for nearly a year instead of every few weeks. He's either stressed out of his mind over that or his brain might finally be starting to relax and accept it. Either way, you've done an amazing job at making his life easier and I know he definitely feels he can talk to you over it. Maybe you should talk about your relationship with him and see how he feels."

"What the hell would we talk about?" Maddy asked. "We've tried it before. He doesn't feel he deserves someone like me and I don't feel like I deserve someone as amazing as him, so we agree that we both got insanely lucky and promise never to leave each other."

"I know asking him when he realised he loves you always gets some funny results." Emma muttered.

"What did Dad say when you asked him?" Maddy asked, grinning evilly. Emma let out a strangled cough and flushed beet red.

"It's not really my place to say. Ask him in the morning."

"Is this going to be like the time I asked where babies come from when I was six?" Maddy glared.

"Remind me."

"You told me to wait until Dad got home and he would explain it to me, and when he got home he told me to go and ask you! I got bounced around like that for two months!"

"Well, you wouldn't accept 'When you're older, you'll understand' and 'that knowledge is only for mummies and daddies who love each other very much.' What the hell were we supposed to do?" Emma defended. "Just ask him, Maddy. If he wants to tell you, he'll tell you."

"Are we talking about Dad or Rhydian here?" Maddy asked.

"Yes." Emma replied.

"Okay then." Maddy rolled her eyes as she laid herself back down and pulled the duvet over herself. "If it's that easy to get answers from men, why do you always seem to have trouble? When you asked the head about the school's anti-bullying policy when the Ks were having a go at me, he ducked the question. When you realised and challenged him on it, he ducked you again."

"Yeah but I'm married to your dad. You're in a relationship with Rhydian." Emma got up to leave and headed for the door. "Once you're involved with someone so heavily, it's easier to read them. Besides, the head teacher of Bradlington really isn't my type." Maddy laughed and went to settle down. "Do you want me to leave the light on so you can read for a bit or will you use your bedside lamp?" Emma asked, knowing Maddy liked to read until she fell asleep after a nightmare.

"I'll use my…" Maddy suddenly remembered the sound of glass shattering in her dream. She looked over with a sense of dread. Sure enough, her lamp was lying on the floor with the bulb in pieces. It seemed to have landed directly face-down, causing the bulb and lampshade to take most of the impact. "You've got to be kidding!"

"I'll get the dustpan and brush." Emma sighed.

"It must have been when I grabbed the pencil." Maddy muttered.

"What?"

"Don't worry, it's nothing." Maddy reached over and searched for the book she'd been reading. It was one Rhydian had lent her and she'd nearly finished it. She made a mental note to give it back to him as soon as possible. If she couldn't finish it tonight, it would definitely be at the weekend. After a few minutes, Emma came back with the brush.

"I'll give it a quick going over tonight, but you're hoovering up properly tomorrow." Emma said firmly. Maddy nodded and let out a frustrated sigh. "So, you mentioned a pencil and I know you got Rhydian a set of watercolours for his birthday." Emma continued. "Are you going to talk about this dream that was so terrible? It's fine if you prefer not to."

"There wasn't much to it." Maddy shrugged. "I walked into my room with his present and found him on my bed with another girl sitting on his chest. I grabbed one of the pencils to try and seriously hurt the pair of them and when I turn the girl around she'd got my face. It was freaky as hell!"

"Well, it sounds like you're at odds with yourself." Emma gave Maddy a pointed look. "Part of you wants to go further in your relationship and the other part worries it might be too fast for him."

"How the hell do you read these things like an open book?" Maddy growled.

"I might have been in a similar situation once." Emma blushed at the memory.

"So what did you do?" Maddy asked.

"I talked to my mother about it." Emma grinned. "She told me where the door to the solution was, but I had to walk through it by myself. For you, the door to the solution is the Vaughans' front door."

"Thanks Mum." Maddy grinned uneasily as she opened the book to the place near the end she'd previously got to.

"What book is that?" Emma asked.

"It's one Rhydian lent me." Maddy told her as she turned it around so Emma could see the cover. "It's amazing. It's called Monster. It's about a girl who gets stranded with several others in a girls' boarding school and they have to survive while the legendary 'Beast of Bathory' is prowling around the grounds. There's more than one chapter in this thing that's just mind-blowing. I'm thinking of getting it myself."

"I never had Rhydian down as a reader." Emma noted as she finished sweeping up and dumped everything in Maddy's bin.

"I can see why he likes this one." Maddy grinned.

"Okay, well just try not to stay up all night reading." Emma headed over to the door and went to turn the light off out of habit before remembering. "I'll see you in the morning, cub."

"I'm not a cub!" Maddy snapped as Emma shut the door. Shrugging to herself, she headed back to bed.

"What was that about?" Dan asked drowsily as she climbed in next to him.

"Maddy's feeling better." Emma sighed. With that, she closed her eyes and let sleep carry her off again.

The Next Morning…

Maddy stood on the doorstep of Mrs Vaughan's house. Her hands were sweating uncontrollably, despite her efforts with wiping them on her trousers to avoid damaging the wrapping paper on Rhydian's present. Trying to stop herself from shaking, she reached up to knock on the door. Suddenly, the door opened and Rhydian's face appeared instead.

"How's it going, Mads?" he asked with a rare grin that she almost never saw on him.

"You certainly look happy." Maddy noted as she handed him the present.

"Well, I very rarely celebrated my birthday beforehand." Rhydian shrugged. "As far as I was concerned, if I was still there at the end of the day then it was a good day."

"Well, those days are gone for as long as I'm here." Maddy reached up on tiptoes and kissed him gently. "Are you going to open your present?"

"Mrs Vaughan wants me to save them up and open them on-mass later so that she can get photos." Rhydian pulled a sickened face.

"Some families do that." Maddy rubbed one hand over Rhydian's shoulder. "It's nice she's comfortable doing things like that with you. Besides, I'll be there. You can just sit next to me if you feel uncomfortable."

"Thanks." Rhydian looped an arm around her as she walked inside. Something told her that was more for his security than hers. Suddenly, something on the air caught Maddy's attention.

"What's that I can smell?" she asked.

"Mrs Vaughan's making a 'special' birthday lunch." Rhydian grimaced. "I saw a packet of Quorn sausages on the counter."

"Well, I might have something special for afters." Maddy patted her bag and Rhydian heard the thump of a sealed plastic box. "It's not much and it's probably a bit battered because I ran here but I imagine it still tastes fine."

"You're the best." Rhydian pulled her close into a hug.

"I just love you." Maddy pressed her face into the side of his neck, enjoying how warm he was. For someone who'd come across as so callous on their first day of meeting, she now found him unbelievably cuddly.

"Lunch is ready!" Mrs Vaughan called through.

"Maddy's just arrived." Rhydian called back as he moved over to the knife and fork drawer.

"Okay, that's three places to set then." Mrs Vaughan replied. Maddy moved into the kitchen and got the plates out. Luckily, she could reach that cupboard so it saved her the embarrassment of having to ask Rhydian for help. "Maddy, what are you doing?" Mrs Vaughan asked.

"It's Rhydian's birthday." Maddy shrugged. "He's not doing absolutely _everything_."

"Well, that's really sweet of you." Mrs Vaughan grinned as Rhydian came in with knives and forks. "Okay, you two sit down. I'll bring the food over." Maddy and Rhydian sat down and she could see the dread on his face at eating veggie food yet again. Suddenly, his look changed to a cross between confusion and relief as Mrs Vaughan took a tray from the oven and started piling bacon, sausages, burgers and a chicken Kiev on his plate.

"What the hell…? I don't understand." Rhydian was lost for words.

"All the vegetarian food you saw me cooking was for me." Mrs Vaughan told him. "All this is for you and Maddy." With that, Mrs Vaughan started dishing up the same onto Maddy's plate. "Enjoy your birthday, Rhydian."

"This is amazing. Thanks so much." Rhydian had a look on his face like a young child at Christmas. Maddy moved her foot over under the table and locked her leg under his.

"By the way, I have your book to give back to you as well." Maddy told him as they started eating. "You were right, that ending nearly had me in tears."

"I knew you'd love it." Rhydian opened up the ketchup as he stacked burgers and bacon between two slices of bread.

"I've got something special to round things off as well." Mrs Vaughan said as she pulled out a metal dish covered with tin foil. She peeled it back and let the smell wash over them. Rhydian's eyes instantly seemed to unfocus as though he was hypnotised.

"Is that steak?"

"I heard from Emma you like it very rare." Mrs Vaughan grinned. "I tell you, I never in my life thought I'd be taking lessons from someone on how to cook non-vegetarian food, but it's amazing how much you don't know when trying to do something for the first time." With that, she placed a steak each on Maddy and Rhydian's plates and started plating up her food onto another plate. She joined them at the table and started eating.

Once they'd finished, Mrs Vaughan took the plates to the sink and Maddy quickly went to get the box from her bag.

"What's that, Maddy?" Mrs Vaughan asked, hearing her coming back in.

"Well, I didn't know this was happening, so I brought round some of Mum's breaded turkey burgers she made for us to eat in a bit." Maddy admitted sheepishly.

"Well that's fine." Mrs Vaughan shrugged. "He can have his one in his packed lunch on Monday."

"He can keep both of them." Maddy said as Mrs Vaughan took the box and put it in a corner of the fridge. "Seriously, Mum's got a whole load of them in the freezer."

"Have I ever told you I love you?" Rhydian asked rhetorically.

"Think nothing of it." Maddy kissed him quickly on the cheek before shoving him lightly on the shoulder.

"Okay, how about doing the presents now?" Mrs Vaughan suggested as she walked through to the lounge and picked up her camera.

"That's a point." Rhydian eyed the present pile through the door to the lounge. "I'm just really hoping that round one from Tom isn't a football or something."

"You were really good at it though." Maddy leaned over and rested her head on his shoulder.

"I _was_ decent in goal, but there was too much of a spotlight on me for my liking." Rhydian shrugged. "As soon as that ball came towards me, everyone's eyes were on me. I prefer to just stay off to the side with everyone who doesn't really know me having no idea I'm there."

"I get what you mean." Maddy nodded thoughtfully. "There _is_ a lot of attention on footballers."

"I find the whole thing to just be madness." Rhydian rolled his eyes. "Anyway, let's just get this over with." Rhydian parked himself on the sofa and Maddy sat next to him.

"Shall we get the one from Tom out of the way first since you're so nervous about it?" Maddy asked as she reached for it.

"I think that's a good idea." Rhydian nodded. He took it from Maddy and ripped the paper off. He'd been half right. It was actually a rubber ball that was the size of a football. The whole surface of it was covered with a stunning wolf picture.

"Wow, that's amazing!" Maddy's breath left her in a rush.

"You know, if I had a little brother at all, I might have actually taken him out the back and given him a kick-about with this." Rhydian shrugged as he took in the detail. As it stands, I'll keep it in my room to avoid ruining the picture. Suddenly, the camera flash blinded both the Wolfbloods.

"Oh, I'm so sorry! How do I turn this off?" Mrs Vaughan started fumbling with the camera.

"Let me take a look." Maddy quickly got off the sofa and went over to see.

"Yeah, she's really good with cameras." Rhydian chipped in. Mrs Vaughan passed her the camera and she quickly disabled the flash. She scrolled to the picture that had just been taken and saw that while it was badly blurred where they'd flinched, Rhydian's wolf had flared for a spit second. His yellow eyes were clearly visible. Maddy deleted it before passing the camera back, breathing out heavily at dodging a bullet and deciding it was probably best if her parents _didn't_ find out about that one.

"You're all set." Maddy grinned as she sat back on the sofa with Rhydian. They cuddled in close into the frame as Mrs Vaughan went to take a picture of Rhydian holding up the ball.

"Rhydian, hold it lower for god's sake. I can't see your face. Bunch up a bit closer… okay, that's a cute one." The camera clicked as Mrs Vaughan took the picture. "Okay, which one do you want next?"

"Tell you what, where's the one from Maddy?" Rhydian asked, looking over the pile and trying to remember what wrapping paper it was in.

"It's that one there." Maddy said pointing to the small one next to a gigantic box. Mrs Vaughan completely misread the direction Maddy was pointing in and went for a completely different one. "It's not that one." Maddy said, her finger never faltering as Mrs Vaughan moved to the next present. "No… No… No… The one I'm pointing to…" Rhydian burst out laughing as he simply reached forward and grabbed it. Mrs Vaughan flushed red with embarrassment.

"Sorry, I think I panicked there." Mrs Vaughan said sheepishly as she picked up the camera again.

"That's okay, it happens to everyone." Rhydian wiped tears of laughter from his eyes. "Okay, let's see here…" Rhydian tore open the wrapping paper and looked disbelievingly at the set of watercolour pencils.

"Those are the ones you wanted, right?" Maddy asked nervously.

"Maddy, these are a better make than the ones I was originally after." Rhydian said, unable to take his eyes off the box of pencils. "These look like specialist pencils!"

"I wondered why that price tag was so steep." Maddy muttered.

"Tell me you didn't…" The colour drained from Rhydian's face.

"No, I'm joking." Maddy laughed. I have a friend who works in an art shop. Their delivery efficiency created a surplus so I grabbed a pack he was giving away so that the manager didn't have to know. That was the last one."

"You are one in a million." Rhydian went to kiss the top of Maddy's head and was surprised when she suddenly tilted her head upwards. Their lips met and Rhydian heard the click as Mrs Vaughan took a picture. He would have to make doubly sure Maddy's parents never saw that.

In the end, Rhydian also ended up with a four-hundred page sketch pad from Shannon, a bunch of gift cards from the Ks, (which Rhydian noted were all for clothes shops that mostly stocked women's clothes. He guessed they were looking for a return on their investment and promised Maddy that the next time she needed something new, he'd take her shopping just for the sake of being rid of them.) And finally, the large box sitting on the floor in the centre was from Mrs Vaughan. Rhydian opened it tentatively.

"Is this…?"

"You kept complaining that the old one was on its last legs, so it made sense." Mrs Vaughan shrugged.

"That's a new TV." Maddy looked dumbstruck at the box.

"Well, I just wanted to make it a little bit special, especially since you wouldn't let us celebrate in any way last year." Mrs Vaughan explained.

"Well, it's certainly a surprise." Rhydian said as he got up and hugged Mrs Vaughan. "Thanks." Mrs Vaughan hugged him back as though she was stranded and he was a life raft. Maddy could see tears in her eyes. Clearly this wasn't something Rhydian had ever done before.

"Shall we take it upstairs and plug it in?" Maddy suggested.

"Yeah, I got some new DVDs yesterday we can watch." Rhydian went to pick the box up by the handle. Suddenly, the bottom dropped out and the TV hit the floor with a crash. "What the hell…?"

"Okay, if that doesn't work now then I'll take it back under grounds of defective packaging!" Mrs Vaughan looked angrily at the box. "Just hold that there while I get a picture for evidence." Mrs Vaughan took the picture and put the camera on the table before helping Rhydian to unwrap the TV to check it was okay. There was now a hairline crack running up the screen.

"That sucks." Rhydian muttered.

"Rhydian, I'm so sorry." Mrs Vaughan looked horrified.

"Why?" Rhydian shrugged. "It's not like you sabotaged it or anything."

"Okay, well we can still go up and you can try out your new watercolours." Maddy didn't know whether to laugh or not at the TV incident. Things really had been going a bit _too_ perfectly. If Rhydian was involved, there had to be a bit of chaos somewhere.

"Yeah, I guess we should do that." Rhydian grinned.

"Yeah, you two head on up and I'm going to be making a phone call." Mrs Vaughan said, glaring at the TV as she got up and grabbed the phone. Maddy and Rhydian decided it was time to make a hasty retreat upstairs. As they made their way up, they could already hear Mrs Vaughan raising her voice.

"It's like hearing a bomb counting down to an explosion." Maddy muttered as they got into Rhydian's room. Rhydian grabbed a piece of paper that he'd already done a wolf drawing on and took some of the pencils out, getting to work immediately. Maddy pulled up a chair and watched him work, transfixed at how he managed to bring such a flat-looking picture to life.

"I've never used pencils that blend this well." Rhydian said as he started shading in the fur of the wolf.

"I'm glad you like them." Maddy grinned. "You should really do something like paid commission work."

"That's what I'm intending to do." Rhydian nodded. "I'm nervous though. Some people ask you to draw really awful stuff and then have a go at you when you don't."

"Yeah, but they're really few and far between." Maddy shrugged. "Don't let a few idiots ruin something you love."

"I know." Rhydian sighed as he stopped colouring and stood up, stretching to work the clicks out of his back while downstairs Mrs Vaughan's temper could be heard going fully supernova. Rhydian secretly pitied the poor customer service team member.

"How are you enjoying your birthday?" Maddy grinned, trying not to laugh at the thought of the poor person who dared to backtalk Mrs Vaughan sweating on the other end of the phone.

"It's been amazing." Rhydian kissed her gently on the top of her head. Gently, she took him by the hand and led him over to the bed. He sat down as their lips met again. Quickly, Maddy climbed onto his lap, straddling him as he lay down. Her hands ran over him gently as they deepened the kiss. Suddenly, Rhydian broke away with a yelp as Maddy's hands glided over his stomach.

"What?" Maddy looked confused before horror registered on her face. "Did I hurt you?"

"No, I'm ticklish!" Rhydian said as he shifted his position on the bed.

"Oh, are you?" An evil look crossed Maddy's face.

"Don't you dare!" Rhydian growled. It was too late. Maddy started ticking him fiercely, causing him to thrash underneath her, desperately trying to throw her off as he held in the laughter.

"This is for every time you ever picked me up like a child." Maddy muttered as she slipped her hands under his shirt and started ticking his stomach directly. Suddenly, she stopped abruptly. Rhydian's laughter faded as he looked at her bewildered.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing, I just got bored." Maddy shrugged. "Come here." Keeping her hands up his shirt, Maddy leaned forward and kissed him again. Suddenly, their attention snapped over to the door as Mrs Vaughan poked her head through.

"Okay, I've spoken to them. I'm just going to take the… What the hell is going on here?" Mrs Vaughan fixed them with an icy glare. "Rhydian, what did I tell you when you two first got together? That sort of thing is _not_ happening here!" Suddenly, Maddy realised what Mrs Vaughan was seeing. She was straddling Rhydian with her hands up his shirt. While it had been meant almost perfectly innocently, Mrs Vaughan had got completely the wrong end of the stick. The words were out of her mouth before she could stop them.

"I swear it's not what it looks like!"

End!

 **This is just a drabble I had an idea for. I'm sorry I haven't been online in so long. I've actually been really ill for the last few weeks. I was off college for two weeks and work has massively piled up. My annual Christmas oneshot will be coming out mid December at about the 16th once I break up from college. As always, reviews are really appreciated. All feedback is welcomed.**


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